2012.02.20
Monday: Quickly around the horn
Teammates celebrate around Dorenzo Hudson after Hudson's 3-pointer beat Georgia Tech on Saturday.
Hitting the road early this morning to head back to Roanoke from Maryland, so I’ll make this quick. That should be OK, though — most of the good stuff cranks up tomorrow.
-The Hokies and Cavaliers meet in Blacksburg on Tuesday night, with both teams coming off victories on Saturday. Game time is 9 p.m. Both teams will have high-profile games on Saturday, too, with Tech heading to Duke and UVa hosting UNC.
-Big week for high school basketball playoffs. Get all your scores, schedules and stories here.
-See, THAT’S why you put Jeremy Lin on TV. The Knicks sensation does it again, scoring 28 points and registering a career-high 14 in Sunday’s win over Dallas.
-Not sure the last time I watched an NBA regular-season game wire-to-wire before yesterday…probably during the Jordan era. Once LeBron came on, though, I switched over to golf, where Bill Haas won a three-man playoff that also included Lefty.
-Carl Edwards wins the pole for the Daytona 500, with Greg Biffle taking the outside of the front row. Danica Patrick posted the 30th-best time. The Gatorade Duel races, which determine the starting positions for the rest of the field, are Thursday.
-Josh Beckett admits to some “lapses in judgment” during last season’s Red Sox collapse. “I’m not saying we didn’t make mistakes because we did make mistakes in the clubhouse,” Beckett says. “The biggest mistake I made was not pitching well against Baltimore. I was prepared to pitch every time I went out there. I just didn’t execute pitches when I needed to.”
-Great discussion on Friday, guys — one of the most active days we’ve ever had here. Appreciate everybody chiming in with their thoughts.
NAME THAT TUNE
-Tough one to kick things off this week.
At a stop in Charlotte found a hogs leg joint
Seemed like forever ’til we reached High Point
Now Lynchburg to Danville that’s a ghost-filled rail
If you listen you can hear the engineer’s wife wail
When life goes wrong this train goes on
Better say Manassas if you say Bull Run
Or in Virginia you won’t get along with anyone
But just across the river you can change your tune
Like all the politicians there in DC do
When life goes wrong they just go on
Somewhere between right and wrong
Somehow I manage to keep moving on
Searching for any place but where I am
and a first and second chance
No idea on the song.
Much props to the Brookville Bees boys basketball team for making the playoffs. They worked hard in 4 games this year and deserve the chance to prove those 4 games were no fluke. OK, 4-17 really? That’s just sad. If I were coaching that team I would turn down a post season bid. What are we teaching these kids today?
Comment by Original Greg — February 20, 2012 @ 8:04 am
Phil sinks a lengthy birdie putt on 18 followed by a birdie by Keegan Bradley to tie Bill Haas and send us to extra holes. Unfortunately, instead we were sent to a smiling face welcoming us to News 7 at 6. Never mind that it`s 6:35. She and four friends are going to give us weather news whether we want it or not. I`m kind of yelling a TV saying people who wanted local weather news probably tuned in at 6 to WSLS, WSET, or better yet looked out the damn window. Heidi comes to golf. Anyway, wife charges in to see why I am yelling at TV thinking perhaps I`m watching a replay of the Sugar Bowl. Thankfully, somebody got the message and Jim and Sir Nick replaced the WDBJ news people. Nice put Bill Haas.
Comment by Ralph — February 20, 2012 @ 8:25 am
Original Greg, how about our Tar Heels being 56-0 all-time versus Clemson at Chapel Hill? Jeez, 56-0! That’s utter and total domination of their enemy, er, opponent.
ESPN showed all the presidents that served their terms during the 55-0 record. It seem to have started back in 1926 and doesn’t look to let up any time soon.
How about it, man? I was stoked.
I also did watch a bit of Tech/Tech game before the UNC game. One thing completely stood out to me about Tech. Erick Green is clearly the cog that makes the offense go. Put pressure on him, and I think Tech’s offense bogs down. That’s my observation, and I’m sticking with it. Then checked again at UNC’s halftime to see the score. With the Bumble Bees in the cellar, Tech should have been dominating the glass and all, but didn’t. Finally, when I checked on Yahoo! Sports’ scoreboard, I was shocked to see Tech winning by 1! Wow. What a job not to lose that game.
Comment by Trevor — February 20, 2012 @ 8:31 am
One of the best finishes to a golf tournament I’ve sen in a long time. I was rooting for Phil but Haas earned it with the smart play from the rough and nailing the long putt.
Beckett made around 17 mil last year. No excuse for not executing pitches against my O’s. He would be better off to keep his mouth closed and win some games.
Comment by justafan — February 20, 2012 @ 9:40 am
I seem to only be able to get your ‘difficult’ Name That Tunes: Amtrak Crescent by Scott Miller
Comment by Brush Mountain — February 20, 2012 @ 9:47 am
It looks like the Fords have the speed package down at Daytona. No wonder some of the other teams are cheating too blatantly. Of course, winning the pole seldom translates into winning the race.
Comment by crooked road — February 20, 2012 @ 11:00 am
Amtrak Crescent-Scott Miller…….cool song about VA…..Im trying not to fall into the LIN thing…..but I have I tried and tried not to but Im on the LINTRAIN.
Comment by Beamer Best all-time — February 20, 2012 @ 11:11 am
Back in the beautiful commonwealth. Brush and Beamer BAT score on the song. Nice job. Deep track for sure, but a good one.
Comment by Aaron McFarling — February 20, 2012 @ 2:16 pm
Curious to see if anybody read Andy’s one-on-one with our beloved *cough, cough* Stinespring? I’m sort of waiting on the Jay Leno of Roanoke Times’ blogs, abdnva, to share his wits and wisdom on Andy’s blog.
Comment by Trevor — February 20, 2012 @ 2:30 pm
Ralph, I agree 100% regarding WDBJ’s handling of the golf playoff. And, honestly, I wouldn’t have minded a studio segment for news at that point it it had actually provided news. But WDBJ only provided fluff. After a brief conversation with Jay Webb (which included snow totals but no radar and no forecast of things to come), the station showed several viewer-submitted photos of snowy lawns, snow on trees, a snowman, falling snow, and a green lawn (obviously pre-snow). Then they went to live “news” correspondents who reported that it was snowing and that roads may be slick because…wait for it…it was snowing. Thanks for the insight. I was irate.
Comment by RP — February 20, 2012 @ 2:39 pm
Ralph, I didn’t mind the break for the weather interlude. It was nice to know what was going on. Besides, there’s always a 10-15 minute break from the 18th to the first playoff hole. All we missed was getting to watch
Phil and Bradley go to the scorers table and then get a drink of water and take a potty break. We didn’t miss any golf. Still a great finish.
I didn’t check out he article about the high school playoffs, but it sounds just like the football playoffs. They really need to make a change.
Looking forward to the Daytona 500. Yes, the Fords have the qualifying speeds but will the engines hold up for 500 miles? Whether the engine will last if always one of the big questions at the 500.
Comment by justafan — February 20, 2012 @ 2:46 pm
RP — Haha! Sorry I missed the pre-snow lawn shot. Sounds epic. I was at my parents’ house and their local affiliate did not cut away, but I can assure you guys that you missed nothing. As justafan pointed out, it took an eternity to get back to golf. Five replays of Phil’s putt was more than enough.
Comment by Aaron McFarling — February 20, 2012 @ 2:57 pm
Justafan, I got the impression from the way the girl started the newscast that the golf was over as far as WDBJ was concerned. There was no mention that “We`ll return to golf after we tell you how much snow has fallen in Hillsville” or ” The sun`s gone down and the roads will get slick” I started remoting thru the channels to see if I could find a sister WDBJ channel they might have switched to. When I passed by WDBJ, the update guy from Galax had been replaced by Phil in the fairway. Happiest I`d been all weekend since `Zo`s shot went in. Wonder if they may have gotten some calls causing them to call a mulligan?
Comment by Ralph — February 20, 2012 @ 6:04 pm
Hey, OG, just a comment about Brookville and other teams which make the regional playoffs with weak records…
This isn’t a bowl game, with the playoffs as a reward. Think of it more like a basketball league championship tourney–there are six or eight spots in the playoffs, and they fill the spots from the top down using whatever ranking criteria they have.
I guess one answer would be to reduce the overall number of teams in the playoffs, but that is unlikely to ever happen. For what it’s worth, some states, like Ohio, have every team in the postseason tournament, no matter their record.
Comment by ken — February 21, 2012 @ 6:49 am